In a recent motion for a sentence modification, Ross suggested he had been rehabilitated. “Life alone” can be a form of rehabilitation, he wrote, bringing with it with a “constant fear of running out of time.”

In the document, Ross also directed Linda Ralu Wolf, Barnet’s successor on the Delaware Circuit Court 3 bench, to a passage in the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye and tooth for tooth,’” it reads in part. “But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.”

In a response, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Eric Hoffman said he found it “hard to believe (Ross) has the audacity to quote the Bible in his motion.”

Hoffman included two other passages from the Bible in his motion, the Sixth Commandment – ”Thou shall not kill.” –and, from Galatians, “For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”

The chief deputy prosecutor also recalled “an old Haitian proverb” that “all criminals turn into preachers under the gallows.”

Judge Wolf denied Ross’ bid for a sentence reduction.

Now held in the Plainfield Correctional Facility, he has a projected release date on the 27th anniversary of Paula Arbogast Ross’ slaying, Oct. 5, 2021.

In early 2017, Wolf rejected Ross’ request for post-conviction relief, which he raised in part because he “now has to wear an irreversible colostomy bag for life.”

Hoffman also wasn’t moved by that medical development.

“This minor inconvenience pales in comparison to the sheer brutality of his crime,” he wrote at the time. “This petitioner deliberately, ruthlessly and viciously executed his ex-wife, the mother of his children, in their elementary school parking lot.”

In 2005, the incarcerated Ross launched a legal battle to receive a share of the estate of his oldest daughter, who had died at age 16.

That estate consisted almost entirely of his daughter’s share of money Paula Ross’ survivors were awarded in 1999 after a jury determined Gaston police had not done enough to protect the homicide victim from Tommy Ross.

Ross eventually was granted a share of the estate, but the money was then seized as compensation for the killer’s failure to pay child support.

Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.